A wide variety of electrical connectors are known and used in the prior art. These connectors generally consist of a plug and a receptacle designed to receive the plug. The connectors typically use a mechanical or friction fit to couple the plug to the receptacle. Unfortunately, the connectors are sometimes inadvertently decoupled due to an accident such as when a person trips over a cable attached to the connector. These inadvertent decouplings can result in a broken connector or even damage to the connected electronic device such as by pulling a lap top computer off of a table and causing it to drop to the floor. If the plug is designed to be easily removed from the receptacle to prevent this type of damage, the plug may not maintain satisfactory electrical contact between the electrical contacts in the plug and the receptacle.
Another problem with prior art connectors is that uncoupling the plug from the receptacle often temporarily breaks the connections between some of the electrical contacts in the plug and receptacle while leaving other electrical contacts connected. This can lead to surge currents in the device when the plug is disconnected from the receptacle that may damage the electronics associated with the device. Therefore, what is needed is an improved connector.